There's nothing like a State Comptroller -using- state- employees- to- chauffeur- his- wife scandal to make our own Police Commissioner stop having the po-po drive his wife around. Oh, yes: NYPD Confidential spoke with a few detectives about "Driving Mrs. Kelly", a practice that ended right when State Comptroller Alan Hevesi came under fire:
One detective said the detail drove Mrs. Kelly as many as three or four times a week.
Another detective said that “while three or four times a week may be too much, it did happen frequently, involving plenty of vehicles and plenty of personnel. No question about it.”
These included, the detectives say, picking Mrs. Kelly up on the Upper East Side when her car broke down; driving her to fundraising events or to the shelter where she volunteered; and taking her to and from airports for domestic and foreign flights.
Other trips adhered to common practice, and included driving Mrs. Kelly to both police and social events at which Kelly appeared.
Apparently, Veronica Kelly even asked for sirens and lights to be used when driving her around - which Commissioner Ray Kelly doesn't even do unless it's an emergency!
Other interesting facts: The Kellys aren't "regarded as considerate towards the hired help" and Mrs. Kelly once called for a detective to help her during a breakdown only to shoo him away when she recognized someone across the street (way to be incognito!). NYPD Confidential's Leonard Levitt spoke to a state official who wasn't familiar with Kelly's case but suggested that Kelly's case "does not appear close to being a Hevesi case," since Hevesi used state employees practically full-time as companions for his wife.
Streetsblog thinks the matter is a big deal because "Kelly is an absolute stickler, and willing to spare no expense, to encourage lawful behavior when it comes to large groups of cyclists on city streets" and "Kelly's agency is responsible for 46% of parking permit abuse by government employees, by far the largest share from any single agency." Well, detectives told NYPD Confidential that there are no records of "Driving Mrs. Kelly" trips, whereas there was more evidence about drivers for Mrs. Hevesi.
Photograph of the Kellys from New York Social Diary
